The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1887-08-25
another Fearful Railroad Accident

another Fearful Railroad Accident
BY disaster to the St. Louis, Chicago
and Cincinnati express train coming into
the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Depot
Yard, at Washington on the 18th. in
which sixteen persons were injured. Engi-
neer Hamilton Brosins and Charles Koch.
a passenger, Will probably die. The other
victims were mostly from Cincinnati, and
were more or less injured.
1t is not often a railroad accident occurs
with such dramatic accessories as those
which accompanied the smash-up this
morning. The spectacle of a train rush
ing on a down grade to inevitable destruc.
tion in the early morning sunlight under
the shadow of the capital of the nation
with distress signals screaming, breakmen
wrestling vainly with imperative brakes
| and an engineer true to his duty to the
last climbing franti cally to the top of the
engine i'll final Intellectual effort to re-
| duce the speed by opening the steam box,
is more realistic than any scene that has
| been attempted upon the stage. Add the
| horror OF train jumping the track and
rushing at rate of fifty miles an hour or
| more straight for four-story brick signal
tower, the signal officer throwing himself
from three story window to escape in
slant death. crash, the SCATTERING of the
| brick tower, a geyser of wind and steam
and then an indistinguishable mass of rods
| nISfNDC br2 i,np nd hat
glass, the silence that followed the crash
broken only by the shrieks and groans of
the wounded, supply on background
numbers of terrified citizens rushing to
their doors and windows, and the Balti-
more and Ohio accident to-day in dra-
matte picturesquenesa stands almost alone.
| The train to which the accident &C.
| Cured was the st. Louis, Chicago and
| Cincinnati express, and coming from the
west, due here at $40, About $50 it
came laundering into the city over the
| Metropolitan branch and at the curve,
| nearly mile away from the ''Y, y began
whistling down brakes" For some
reason the brakes were not put down. The
brakes, it was stated, did not work, and
the engineer began blowing his distress
whistle for the brakemen to put on the
regular brakes. Either the brakemen did
not heed the signal or it was rot given in
time to be OF use. for the train, flying at
a frlghtfGl rate. came laundering on to-
wards the sharp curve at the "Y y. In the
little corner made by the intersection of
tracks was located the railroad signal tow
er, brick structure three stories high,
where men are employed to regulate the
signals and the switches at the ''Y y with
fearful Roadway the car behind the engine
Jumped the track and smashed into the
SPINAL tower, and in an instant there was
a wreck which, for confusion, has seldom
been equaled in railroad annals.
The engine was dragged from the track,
and ploughing through the dirt and mud a
distance of $50 feet, rolled completely
| over. There it lay, giving forth it's steam
and hot water in great jets. The steam
plowed up the dirt and covered the house
in front of the engine with a fine LAYER of
yellow mud that looked like fresh coat
blown through the house, and some of the
inmates were badly scaled. Near the
engine lay Hamilton Brosius, the engineer.
crushed and dying, and his fireman with
several bones broken. But behind the en-
CINE was scene of panic and confusion
One car was crushed and nearly buried I'M
der the tracks. ands climbers of the demol-
lshed building. Two sleeping coaches and
| one passenger coach remained On the track.
The mail car, the express car and the bag
gage car were rolled over and stheir sides
We're crushed. The roof of one car pro-
tuded from the ruins Of the building.
The disorder created intense excitement.
A fire alarm was sounded, which quickly
brought the fire department and the DO
| lice to the scene. Ambulances were hur-
| rledly sent for, and corps of physicians
| came, summoned from every direction.
Firemen, policemen, railroad men and the
citizens went to work with their coats off
to clear away the debris. Many injured
| passengers were removed and taken 10
neighboringsho houses or drug stores, or to
hospitals, In TINS way eighteen or twenty
| people were got out of the wreck. some of
them only slightly injured, others with
| bones broken and bodies badly bruised aud
| cut In the signal tower, on the upper
floor Or observatory, William Baxter, a
railroad signalman, was at work. On the
ground floor Joseph Healy, young man
employed by the railroad company was en-
gagged cleaning lamps. Baxter, it appears,
realized the impending danger in time
He gave shout to Healy and leaped from
| the tower to the ground He broke his
| arm in the fall and was pretty badly shaken
| up, but seems to have escaped more Sc.
| rlous injury. Healy, below, however, was
| buried in the ruins of the house.